Running out of eyelashes has always been a fear of mine. For as long as I can remember I’ve loved to pick at my lashes and pull them out to make wishes on.

My strange fascination got more intense when I started to wear mascara as a teen. The formula I used was exceptionally clumpy and thick, so I told myself I was "just removing the clumps," not pulling all of my lashes out.

"Stop picking," my mom, desperate to put a stop to my bad habit, would say. She was always watching me--whether from over her shoulder or in the rear view mirror of our car--but she still couldn't catch me every time. One day she told me a little white lie that stuck with me forever, "You know, eyelashes don’t grow back. Keep picking and you’ll have none left!”

From that moment on I was terrified of losing all of my lashes. Even now that I know lashes DO grow back (in cycles, FYI), I still feel like mine would be thicker and longer if it weren't for my childhood habit. I feel like I stunted their growth!

All of this lash insecurity prompted me to try Cargo LashActivator Night Primer.

Usually I'm pretty dubious about lash-growing products, but, like those guys who click on the "enlarge your member" spam emails, I was desperate enough to put my skepticism aside.

This clear-formula product is a nighttime version of Cargo LashActivator Primer, which promises to make lashes look longer and thicker after 30 days. Ingredients include marine algae to add fullness; citrus-derived flavonoid to nourish; and a peptide-biotin complex that "may slow the rate of lash loss."

How did it work on me? While I had no problem weaving the lash primer into my nighttime routine, I hated how it made my lashes feel. They were always a little too stuck together and heavy, which made it impossible to apply regular mascara in the morning. I ended up using makeup remover to take the primer off and put my mascara on, and that was just way too high maintenance for me.

The real question is whether or not my lashes grew. Sadly, I didn’t see much of a difference. Maybe I was at the wrong point in my lash growth cycle--I’ll keep trying the product to make sure--but in general, my lashes didn’t really change. I guess I'll just have to keep wishing for better lashes, but definitely not wishing on pulled-out lashes.

Have you had success with any lash growth products? How long did it take to see results?